"needle in the haystack"

[Jim Boyer]

I had a little "photo fun" after yesterday's scouting effort.

”250+ geese”


"little stack"


"posers"


"the needle"

-----------

 

[Bob B]

Jim,
for me the needle is the Ice in your picture. We are waiting for the lock up up north to start the push.
Cool to see the standing bird with the band. Do you use a tripod for those photos?

Bob

 

[Jim Boyer]

Do you use a tripod for those photos?

No, I was sitting in my van parked on the road. It is a private lake so I couldn't get any closer. The total group was taken with a wide angle lens.....Tamron 17-50 mm. Then I switched out to my telephoto lens to capture several smaller sections of the flock.....Canon 55-200 mm. Neither lens is very high end.

The initial intent was to use the large group photo to check my skills at estimating numbers. The US Wildlife takes aerial surveys to monitor waterfowl populations and to assist in obtaining migration data. There were tutorial links on how to make reasonable estimates.....Bird Counting 101 and 201.

I had estimated 200-300 geese. The actual count was 253. Afterwards, I started cropping the telephoto shots and eventually began searching for a band. There were not a lot of geese standing, and I was pleasantly surprised when one turned up.
---------